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Friday, February 21, 2014

Veganising the Louisiana Po'Boy Sandwich | American Sandwich Recipes

Back in 2012. I saw a program on PBS about Sandwich favorites found across the USA. The program was called Sandwiches That You Will Like. It was a deliciously well made program with favorites from many American stated being featured. One of the sandwiches that intrigued me both for its history and its saucy taste was the Louisiana Po'Boy!! The original Po'Boy Sandwich is a New Orleans favorite that is made with a spiced meat, chicken, or fried seafood filling of choice. This filling is stuffed into a French Baguette like loaf famous for a soft fluffy interior and crusty exterior. If you like your Po'Boy dressed, it comes with salad vegetables including lettuce, tomato, pickles and mayonnaise. Onions tend to be optional and the Po'Boys made with meat are accompanied with a coarsely ground mustard and/or gravy too.

The term Po'Boy itself has an interesting origin. While fried seafood sandwiches were popular in New Orleans from the 1800's, the term Po'Boy is meant to refer to a particular kind of sandwich. In 1929, restaurant owners Benny and Clovis Martin served their colleagues from a streetcar company (where they were formally employed) sandwiches free of cost for four months during a strike at the company. Benny and Clovis often referred to the strikers as poor boys, and this name soon became synonymous with the sandwich they served them! Po'Boy is simply a shortened version of this term.

I loved the idea of this sandwich so much that I just had to come up with a vegetarian | vegan version of it!! So I started out with replacing the meat or seafood with Tofu, which I spiced with the classic Po'Boy spices. I then pan grilled it and served it salad and a delicious yogurt dip in a pita. The Po'Boy is all vegan, and you can simply use non-dairy yogurt versions in place of the Greek yogurt that I have used to make the dip!!